Luminescence and lifetime properties of rare-earth doped phosphate glass

Abstract

This work aims to investigate the characteristics related to the luminescence spectra of phosphate glass PbO-In2O3-P2O5 and PbO-P2O5, doped respectively with 1.0 wt% of Nd3+ and Eu3+. These glasses were produced by melt and rapid cooling method. The compounds are from Sigma Aldrich with a 99.99% degree of purity. The spectral characteristics of Nd3+, Eu3+, ions in phosphates are important to optical applications. Such glasses can be useful as optical fibers doped and in solid-state lasers. The emission and excitation spectra were obtained using a spectrofluorometer (Nanolog - Horiba) with a photomultiplier tube R928P equipped with a Xenon lamp (CW 450 W) as the excitation source, and a filter of 399 nm. Lifetime was also obtained with the NanoLog, using the same lamp and detector. The figure 1.(a) show luminescence spectra of Nd3+ (excitation 524 nm) where they were observed three bands at 898 nm, 1056 nm and 1325 nm that are characteristic of Nd3+ ions in glasses. The figure 1.(b) show luminescence spectra of Eu3+ (excitation 381 nm) where they were observed five bands at 579 nm, 592 nm, 612 nm, 652 nm and 700 nm that are characteristic of Eu3+ ions in glasses.